The summer of 2025 is severely missing in “Espresso.”
Gone are the sweaty days when “Not Like Us” lit up events nationwide, uniting Drake dissers in every single place. There are manchildren and daisies and animated anthems from “KPop Demon Hunters,” however nothing that’s made as massive of a cultural dent as “Birds of a Feather” or something from “Brat.”
There is not any song of the summer this 12 months. And if there may be, it’s most likely a bummer.
The prime 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 are occupied largely by downers. At No. 1, Alex Warren’s vaguely Christian ballad “Ordinary” is greatest fitted to a quiet examine session, not a raucous get together. Morgan Wallen, fresh from God’s country, can’t feign enthusiasm on his current half-baked singles. Even pop prince Justin Bieber is retaining it low-key on his new album, which depends on sparse, downbeat guitars. (This, coming from one of the males behind 2017’s song of the summer, “Despacito.”)
And then, if the hottest songs in the nation aren’t considerably dour or mellow to a fault, they’re holdovers from 2024 (or older). This 12 months, it appears we left pop bombast in 2024.
“We’re coming off a huge wave of amazing stuff,” mentioned Mike Errico, a songwriter and teacher at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. “A lot of what 2025 has come out with — they’re kind of down, kind of low energy. It’s good, but it’s not going to light up a room.”
The state of the song of the summer is in disaster. There’s nonetheless time to discover a definitive song that unites each snobs and informal listeners — Sabrina Carpenter’s new album arrives at the finish of August, in any case — however thus far, the song of summer 2025 is one lengthy sigh.
Last summer, we met thrilling new pop stars like Chappell Roan. Underdogs like Charli XCX and Sabrina Carpenter, who labored steadily for years as cult favorites, lastly broke out. And perhaps you heard that two of the most well-known girls in the world — Taylor Swift, Beyoncé — launched tasks final 12 months?
“2024 was exceptional,” Errico mentioned. “I don’t think you see that a lot — really humongous hits, with insanely long lives on the charts.”
This 12 months’s well-liked new music has been decidedly downbeat, with ballads and ponderous nation songs topping the charts, Errico mentioned. Even Bieber’s “Daisies,” charting excessive in the weeks after its launch, is comparatively pared again for the one-time collaborator of fiery artists like Skrillex and Quavo.
“A lot of stuff was low energy,” Errico mentioned of this 12 months’s new music. “It’s good for dim rooms, but I don’t think that’s associated with the ‘song of the summer.’”
Ideally, a song of the summer is “bright, poppy, upbeat,” Errico mentioned — a celebration in miniature that’s simple to bounce alongside to. It’s a song that gained’t grate even if you hear it a million instances over one summer. This 12 months “did not deliver that,” he mentioned.
“Maybe we shot our bullets in 2024 all at once,” he mentioned.
“Do we need a song of the summer to be brand spankin’ new?” Errico contemplated. “Can it be something from, oh, 10 months ago?”
Release dates haven’t held again some of the 12 months’s hottest songs from persevering with to soar. Four of the prime 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 had been launched in 2024, together with Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” a scrappy, simply singable nation song that’s been charting for over a 12 months, and “Luther,” Kendrick Lamar’s laid-back jam with SZA.
Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ 2024 dulcet duet “Die with a Smile” has survived for almost a 12 months in the prime 10 — in the meantime, the spiky, danceable cuts from Gaga’s new album “Mayhem” have disappeared. (There’s additionally Teddy Swims’ inexplicably well-liked “Lose Control,” which is now over two years previous.)
“I think it speaks to the power of 2024, that they’re still on the charts in 2025,” Errico mentioned. “Maybe 2024 isn’t over yet.”
There is a kind of song that makes much less of a dent upon arrival however winds up defining the summer, like “360,” “Guess” and “Apple” from Charli XCX’s “Brat.”
This 12 months, that slot seems to be crammed by PinkPantheress’ “Illegal,” which has soundtracked over 1,000,000 TikToks and counting. It slid off the charts pretty shortly after its May launch, nevertheless it fills the earworm quotient, and it’s the uncommon viral hit that hasn’t but worn out its welcome. Also in competition are songs from burgeoning pop star and unique TikTok idol Addison Rae and Ravyn Lenae, whose “Love Me Not” is a uncommon bouncy gem in the prime 10.
“You’re not seeing (these songs) en masse, but maybe that’s better,” Errico mentioned of the cult hits. “Maybe not everyone should be invited to a single party. Maybe we should have different parties with different playlists that reflect a smaller but more dedicated group of people.”
It’s potential that once we look again at this summer a 12 months from now, older songs will spring to thoughts, Errico provided. The CEO kiss-cam meltdown at a Coldplay live performance in July turned one of the summer’s greatest tales, and followers could bear in mind the second set to “The Scientist” or “Fix You.” Ozzy Osbourne’s death has already prompted followers to revisit his greatest hits, like the karaoke barn-burner “Crazy Train.”
Or perhaps, Errico urged, the song of the summer is one which greatest exemplifies the quickening encroachment of AI into artistic fields, like AI band Velvet Sundown’s AI song, “Dust on the Wind.” Even the title feels like a Fleetwood Mac-inspired ChatGPT immediate.
This fruitless seek for the song of the summer has made Errico surprise, can we even want one this 12 months? The songs of 2024 are already tiding us over.
“Maybe music needed this minute to chill,” he mentioned. “Let’s let everybody digest it and come back strong next summer.”
Maybe we’ll get again to the great things in summer 2026. Or perhaps late entries like Carpenter; Tyler, The Creator and Chappell Roan (whose new song is a ballad) might run away with the season — or the 12 months.
After all, Errico mentioned: “A good song is good for longer than the summer.”